


To this thing we keep

by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel



Series: I Get a Little Bit Genghis Khan [3]
Category: Genghis Khan - Miike Snow (Music Video)
Genre: 1960s, Gold Nose Villain's POV, Homosexuality, Kids, M/M, Spies & Secret Agents, Supervillains, shovel speech
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-24 16:08:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6159178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel/pseuds/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>New relationships are complicated - doubly so when one of you is a supervillain, and the other is a former secret agent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To this thing we keep

**Author's Note:**

> _This takes place between 'Don’t want you to get it on with nobody else but me' and 'Like I just lost the world war.'_
> 
> _Also, 18,000 words in this series, guys, written in like five days - this fandom has temporarily taken over my brain._

** To this thing we keep **

After a month, it was clear that Natalia wasn’t coming back.

The only good thing about the situation was the fact that the children had taken well to James, who with nothing else to do with his time, had spent a lot of it supervising Clara and David.

Sphinx would have thought that a secret agent of James’ calibre would have become bored by now – here on base, there were no death-defying stunts necessary, no race against time to defeat ‘bad guys,’ no need for the complicated interpersonal games that James was an expert at playing – but James seemed to be perfectly happy (if a little bemused) to be spending most of his time watching Sphinx’s kids while Sphinx was busy running things.

Sphinx didn’t think that James had ever had much to do with children before – his air of general bemusement pointed to that – but the man was a natural, knowing exactly when to be friendly and approachable, and when to stand his ground against the blandishments of small children who wanted something. He deferred to Sphinx as the ultimate authority on a lot of matters – _“Can I have cake for breakfast, James?” “Probably not, but ask your father,”_ – but was willing to step up and tell Clara and David no when he needed to.

When Sphinx had spared James’ life, there had been no thought in his head, really, of James choosing to stay – he was, after all, one of his organisation’s most accomplished agents, while Sphinx was a _supervillain_. What chance did Sphinx have?

When James had chosen to stay, making his own feelings clear, Sphinx had been so caught up in his own happiness that he hadn’t really considered how James would be with the kids – not at first. Only when he’d gone home, to tell Natalia the truth, had he really thought that aspect of things through. When Natalia had left, he’d brought Clara and David back to the base so that they could be watched over, hoping desperately that kids weren’t going to be a deal-breaker for James.

But James had smiled at Clara and David, and had been so kind, even in the face of Clara’s displeasure. It was immediately obvious that he liked children – or at least, liked Sphinx’s children – and later, when Sphinx had started to apologise for springing them on him, James had made it clear that he understood that Sphinx and the kids came as a package deal.

Sphinx didn’t think he’d ever been so relieved in his life.

Now, as Sphinx entered the suite where his children were currently living – just until Sphinx could sort things out – he was surprised to hear music playing. Peering into the room that held a combined living area and kitchenette, he found that Clara and David were sitting at the kitchenette bench with their colouring-in books, while James sat reading the paper, absently drinking a martini. Not far away, someone had plugged a large radio into the wall power socket, and the radio was merrily playing the kind of music that Sphinx doubted that most of the legitimate radio stations would have dared play.

“Are you listening to a pirate radio station?” Sphinx asked, entering the room to twin shouts of “ _Daddy!_ ” as his children noticed him. David raced over to greet him, while Clara only waved, too busy colouring-in to do so.

James looked up from his newspaper with a grin.

He really did look attractive in those reading glasses, Sphinx thought absently, as he ruffled David’s hair. Not that James wasn’t always attractive, of course – but there was something about the reading glasses which particularly suited him.

“Pirate stations have the best music,” James said, taking off his reading glasses and rising from his seat, moving to greet Sphinx himself as David returned to his colouring-in book. They exchanged a kiss, although it was only brief, both of them mindful of their young audience.

“This is a good song,” Sphinx commented, as a new song began playing.

“It is,” James agreed, smiling.

Sphinx was moving before he really thought about it, taking James’ hand and stepped into a series of dance moves. James immediately followed his lead, the way he always did, and Sphinx didn’t think he’d ever get used to having a partner who not only didn’t mind his impromptu musical numbers, but was willing to go along with them.

There was a shriek of delight from Clara.

“Secret dance time!” she yelled, and she and David bounded forward to join in with dance moves of their own.

“ ‘Secret dance time?’ ” James repeated, raising an eyebrow as he looked at Sphinx.

Sphinx felt his expression turn abashed.

“Natalia never approved of my dancing,” he admitted.

She hadn’t minded if the two of them went out dancing at one of the dance halls, and danced to the music there, but Sphinx’s habit of expressing himself suddenly through song and dance? Natalia had thought it profoundly strange, and made her disapproval clear. So Sphinx had restricted his dancing to when he was alone with his henchmen – most of who were happy to ‘boogie down’ with him – and never danced while in Natalia’s company. Occasionally he’d danced with the kids, when Natalia was out, but Sphinx had impressed upon them the importance of keeping these dancing session secret. 

Refraining from dancing had seemed reasonable enough, at the time – Sphinx knew that most people didn’t burst out into musical numbers when the mood took them – and the last thing he’d wanted was to make Natalia ashamed of him. But now, dancing with James, Sphinx realised how freeing it was that he didn’t have to compromise who he was, any longer.

At Sphinx’s words, a dark expression crossed James’ face, as he read into Sphinx’s simple statement all the things Sphinx wasn’t saying. Sphinx suspected that James was liking Natalia less by the day, never mind that he’d never even met her.

“Well, I approve of your dancing,” James said mildly, even though his expression hinted at darker thoughts.

“And believe me, I appreciate it,” Sphinx murmured, manoeuvring around his son as David flailed wildly in time to the music. When he glanced back up at James, the other man was looking at him with a serious expression, all hint of a smile gone.

“Dancing without someone’s disapproval is the least that you deserve,” said James, and Sphinx looked at him. James held Sphinx’s gaze, clearly communicating how strongly he believed in that statement.

Sphinx smiled, and wondered, not for the first time, how he’d been so lucky as to end up with James as his partner.

When the song ended, the two of them took a seat at the kitchenette bench, while Clara and David continued to dance.

James watched them, an amused smile on his face, before glancing back at Sphinx.

“Natalia isn’t coming back, is she?” he asked in an undertone, so that the dancing children wouldn’t hear.

Sphinx sighed.

“I’m beginning to think not,” he confirmed regretfully, watching as David almost hit his sister in the face with his waving arms. “I’m not quite sure what to do about it – school begins in a week and a half, and the children need new uniforms and books and everything else. And someone’s going to need to drop them to school and pick them up in the afternoons, and feed them dinner when they get home, and I don’t want to keep them living on-base in case it’s ever attacked. I don’t know what to do.”

Sphinx shut his mouth, aware that he’d said more than he meant to.

But James was frowning thoughtfully.

“I could do it, if you want,” he suggested. 

Sphinx stared at him, speechless.

“What?” James met his stare. “I’ve been looking after them daily for the last month. Taking them shopping might be a little more difficult, but it can’t be that much harder than some of the missions I’ve been on,” he added, with a flash of humour. “And I know how to cook – I’ve been looking after myself for years.”

Sphinx continued to stare at him.

“Why?” he asked finally, because this was a lot of responsibility to be taking on for a man James had only been – dating? Seeing? Together with? – for a month, even if they’d known each other for longer than that.

James sobered.

“I – well, I always wanted a family,” he confessed, with a crooked smile. “And I know that they’re not really _mine_ , but–”

Sphinx had read the dossier on James, of course, but he’d been more focused on the fact that James was a secret agent sent to extract information from him than anything else. But now, Sphinx remembered that James had grown up an orphan, and in a burst of illumination suddenly understood why James had formed such a fast connection with David and Clara. James had grown up alone, with no one to care for him and no one for him to care for, and in adulthood he’d been recruited to an agency that too often saw its members as resources first, people second. Family must have been something he’d yearned for all his life.

“They could be,” Sphinx interrupted, and James stopped, halfway through his sentence. “They could be,” Sphinx repeated, and felt his heartbeat accelerate. “If you wanted.”

And then he stopped, because James had lit up like a small child at Christmas who’d just been given the toy they hadn’t even dared to hope for. Sphinx had seen a lot of different expressions on James’ face, over the last few months, but this was a new one, and it stole his breath away.

“Thank you,” said James, after a moment, his voice heartfelt, and he took Sphinx’s hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. 

Sphinx was utterly taken with the affectionate gesture. He smiled fondly at James, and both of them glanced back at the children.

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Sphinx asked. “Looking after the kids is bound to be a lot of work.”

James shrugged. 

“I don’t mind. They’re pretty good kids.”

“They are,” Sphinx agreed.

“When are you going to tell them about Natalia?” James asked, and Sphinx sighed deeply. He’d been putting off that particular chore, not wanting to see the looks on his kids’ faces when they realised that their mother wasn’t coming back… but it had been a month. The kids had to at least suspect that something was badly wrong.

“I suppose that now is as good a time as any,” he said, and moved to turn off the radio.

Clara and David both ‘awwed’ in disappointment as the music stopped.

“Clara, David, I have something important to tell you,” Sphinx began, the words sticking in his throat. Clara and David looked up expectantly, a little puzzled at his seriousness, and Sphinx wondered how Natalia could have borne to leave them. “Kids… I don’t think Mummy is coming back,” he said, as gently as possible, and waited.

“But she has to come back,” said David, brow wrinkling. “She’s our _Mummy_.”  

“I know,” said Sphinx quietly. “But that doesn’t mean she’s going to come back, David.”

“Are you going to leave, too?” Clara asked, her voice small.

“Never,” Sphinx said instantly, pulling both his children into a hug. He was aware of James watching the scene, his expression inscrutable, but Sphinx didn’t look at him. “I love you and David so very, very much,” he told Clara. “Understand?”

Clara nodded hesitantly, and Sphinx added, “I could never leave either of you. It would hurt my heart too much.”

Clara wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. Sphinx felt wetness there, and realised that Clara was crying silently. He rubbed her back gently, offering what support he could.

“But Mummy has to come back,” David reiterated his statement from before. Sphinx closed his eyes, and wished that he knew how to explain to his son in words that the boy would understand that Natalia really wasn’t coming back. He wished this wasn’t all so damn hard.

“I’m so sorry, David,” he murmured, and David’s face crumpled into an expression of abject misery.

A moment later he started howling, and Sphinx tried to pull him in for another hug, but David pummelled Sphinx’s chest with his fists, yelling, “ _No! No!_ ” and so Sphinx let his son go, and watched as David had a screaming tantrum on the carpeted floor.

“Problems, boss?” a voice asked quietly, and Sphinx looked up to see Anton standing in the doorway, a file in his hand.

“He just told the kids that Natalia isn’t coming back,” James offered, his own voice also quiet.

Anton winced in sympathy.

“I’ll talk to you about this later, then,” he said, tucking the file under one arm and with a nod, leaving Sphinx and James alone with the kids.

David screamed himself hoarse for the next fifteen minutes, before finally collapsing in an exhausted heap. Clara just clung to her father, saying nothing.

For once, Sphinx felt helpless. There was nothing he could do to ease his children’s pain: they had to deal with it in their own way, by themselves. He wished that things were otherwise – that there was something he could do – but all he could do was be there for Clara and David, and reassure them that he, at least, wasn’t going anywhere.

The children were still subdued as they ate dinner, and Clara demanded that Sphinx tuck them into bed and read them a story before he left them alone for the night. So Sphinx sat on the edge of the bed and read _The Tiger Who Came To Tea_ , smiling faintly as the children giggled at the story.

Afterwards, Sphinx made his way to the guest quarters that had become James’ rooms.

James was sitting in an armchair, listening to music from the radio, and his expression was pensive as he looked up at Sphinx.

“How are they?” James asked.

“Still upset, as you can imagine,” Sphinx replied, sinking down into one of the other chairs. It hurt, seeing Clara and James so upset.

“Did you find out what Anton wanted, earlier?”

“No,” Sphinx said, sighing. “I suppose I should.” He began to get up out of his chair. James did the same.

“Come here,” said James. His expression was soft and sympathetic, and so Sphinx did. James pulled him into a hug. Sphinx relaxed into it immediately, taking comfort from having James’ arms around him and the warmth of James’ body pressed against him. They stood there for a while, neither of them wanting to end the hug.

Finally, James eased back, and pressed a gentle kiss to Sphinx’s mouth.

“When you get back from talking to Anton, I’ll be here,” he said, and Sphinx looked at him, grateful as ever for James’ quiet support. “If you want,” James added, a little tentatively, “you can always stay here tonight – I know you’ve been sleeping in one of the other guest suites. We don’t have to do anything, if you don’t want to – I just thought that you might not want to sleep alone.”

Sphinx appreciated the offer, but James’ words left a question to be asked.

“And if I _do_ want to?” he asked, raising an eyebrow, and James grinned.

“Well, I’m perfectly happy with that, too,” James admitted, without an ounce of shame or embarrassment. He met Sphinx’s eyes, and there was a seductive edge in his gaze that hadn’t been there a minute ago.

Sphinx swallowed.

“I really should go and talk to Anton,” he said regretfully, because delightful though the prospect that James had conjured up was, Sphinx still had his responsibilities.

“I’m not going anywhere,” James said, with a quick smile, and they shared another kiss – longer, this time – before Sphinx went on his way.

“Boss,” Anton greeted him, when Sphinx arrived at Anton’s office.

“Anton,” Sphinx cleared his mind of thoughts of James, and focused on the here and now. “What did you try to talk to me about, earlier?”

“Ah. About that,” said Anton, and grabbed a file off his desk. “Something I thought you ought to know. We had a spy in the ranks – one of the more recent recruits.”

“Had?” Sphinx noticed the use of past tense.

Anton shrugs.

“The boys weren’t happy about it, boss, and the fool tried to run. And, you know, better a dead spy than a free one.”

“Go on,” said Sphinx.

“We don’t think he managed to get much information, but it looks like he got at least one piece of intel back to his superiors. The whole base knows about you and Secret Agent getting together, unfortunately, and the bastard passed that information back to his organisation. We don’t think he knew Secret Agent’ full name, or exactly which organisation Secret Agent defected from – but it’s not going to take the spy’s bosses long to work out who Secret Agent is, and spread the word that he’s in a relationship with you.”

Anton passed Sphinx the file, and Sphinx opened it. It was the personnel file for one of the new recruits – the spy – and Sphinx found himself looking down at a photo of a young man with an innocuous, forgettable kind of face.

“Do we know which organisation he was working for?” Sphinx asked eventually, trying to control his anger. He’d hoped to lead James’ former organisation to believe that James was dead, for the sake of James’ safety. This new development meant that James would likely become a target for assassination by his former colleagues.

“We think it was MI6, but Gregory and his division are still digging,” Anton replied.

Sphinx frowned, and thought.

“Contact Viper. I want to know the moment that this information reaches the rest of the intelligence community.”

Viper was the code-name of an MI6 agent who had been working as a double-agent for Sphinx for some years now. She’d started out as an idealistic young analyst for MI6, but had quickly become disillusioned by some of the agency’s decisions and practices – not to mention the way she was treated by some of the agents, who believed that you should ‘send a man to do a man’s job,’ even though women had been doing this kind of work since World War II at the very latest. While the majority of Sphinx’s personnel were male, he was nonetheless aware that women could be just as capable as men, and had gladly accepted Viper into his ranks when she had approached his people.

Anton nodded.

“It might take a few days to reach her,” he warned, “but I’ll make sure she gets your message.”

“Thank you,” said Sphinx. He found himself sighing, for the umpteenth time that day. “I doubt James will be pleased by this.”

“Tell him I’m sorry we didn’t catch the bloke earlier,” Anton offered. He’d been sympathetic towards James from the moment James had chosen to stay with Sphinx instead of fleeing back to his organisation, and since that moment the two of them had proven to get along rather well. Anton appreciated James’s sense of wry humour, and the fact that he’d done his best with Sphinx and the kids; while James had been grateful for Anton’s lack of hostility, even though James had started off planning to betray Sphinx before he’d fallen in love with him. 

“You did your best,” said Sphinx. “I’m sure James will understand.”

“Still,” said Anton. “If we’d only found him a little earlier, it could have saved you and Secret Agent a lot of trouble. It’s just bad luck that we didn’t.”

“It is,” said Sphinx, and rubbed at his temples. He had the beginnings of a headache. The thought of returning to James was cheering, however. “Was that everything, Anton?”

Anton grinned.

“Sure. You can go back to romancing with Secret Agent,” he said, and once again, Sphinx was struck by how uncannily good Anton was at identifying the thoughts going through his head.

“Thanks,” Sphinx said dryly. “Have a good night, Anton.”

He left Anton’s office, and headed back towards James’ suite – to continue ‘romancing,’ as Anton had put it.

Sphinx smiled. He was looking forward to it. 

The conversation about the spy could come tomorrow morning, when they were both awake and refreshed enough to deal with it.

* * *

The next morning, Sphinx told James about the spy.

James seemed more resigned than anything, and told Sphinx that he wasn’t really surprised that the information had gotten out; apparently, he’d expected something of the sort to happen. Sphinx hated that he hadn’t been able to protect James from this, but as James said – it was to be expected, in their line of work.

Later, Sphinx was walking down one of the labyrinthine hallways that filled the base, almost to the corner, when he heard James’ voice. Ordinarily he would have hurried his pace, moving to greet his partner, but James’ words made him pause.

“Look, I know you have some kind of problem with me. So why don’t you just come out and tell me what it is so we can handle it like adults instead of like sniping schoolchildren?”

Sphinx stopped where he was, curious to hear the other person’s reply.

There was an audible sniff of disdain.

“I know what you are,” said a voice, and Sphinx closed his eyes and stifled a groan as he realised that the speaker was Gregory.

Gregory been glaring at James ever since Sphinx and James had first gotten together, and while Sphinx had hoped that Gregory’s animosity would fade, obviously it hadn’t.

“You use people and betray them,” Gregory went on, his tone belligerent, “and I know you’re going to break Sphinx’s heart, just as you have with everyone else’s. I want you to leave, before you can make things worse than they already are.”

There was a moment’s pause, presumably as James assessed the situation. Then:

“I’m not going to break Sphinx’s heart.” James’ voice was firm. “Not when he loves me.”

“He’s hardly the first to love you,” Gregory scoffed.

“He is, actually,” said James, and his voice was carefully mild. “Everyone else loved the idea of me: loved the smooth, suave façade I put up. They loved the lie, not me. But Sphinx – he knows me for who I really am, what I’ve done, and he loves me _anyway_. Do you really think I’d be foolish enough to throw that away?” There was another pause, and then James said, “Besides which, I love him.”

“What do you know about love?” Gregory scoffed. “I read your file – you’re an _orphan_.”

Sphinx’s mouth tightened in anger at Gregory’s taunt, but James’ reply was soft.

“Maybe I am,” he said, and his voice was openly pained; Sphinx mentally cursed Gregory. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t know what love is. I saw it everywhere, all my life, even if I never had it for myself. And trust me, now that I’ve finally found it, I’m not letting it go.”

There was a moment’s silence.

“Hmph,” said Gregory. There was an audible sigh, presumably from James.

“Look,” he said, with unexpected gentleness, “I understand that you’re loyal to Sphinx, and want to protect him. I think that’s admirable. But he’s a grown man, and he’s capable of making his own choices. And trust me, he wouldn’t be happy to know that we’re having this conversation.”

“Is that a threat?” Gregory snapped.

James gave a short laugh.

“Actually, it’s not, believe it or not. Look,” he said, a second time, “will you just – give me a chance? I know what my history looks like, and I know that you have good reason to be concerned, but – I’m actually being sincere, for once in my damn life. I love Sphinx, and I think his kids are adorable, and I absolutely want to stick around. So just let me prove that I mean it, will you?”

There was a long silence.

“Fine,” said Gregory, and his tone was grudging. “But if you betray him – him or the kids – then there won’t be enough left for anyone to bury by the time I’m finished with you.”

“Thank you,” said James quietly; and Sphinx was fairly certain that James wasn’t only thanking Gregory for giving him a chance, but for being so protective of Sphinx.

“Don’t thank me,” said Gregory. “I just want my employer to be happy, for once. He looks after all of us, in a way most supervillains don’t, and he’s earned our loyalty. So don’t betray him.”

“I won’t,” said James, and there was such strong conviction in his voice that Sphinx’s breath caught, still in wonder at the fact that he’d somehow won such affection from the former secret agent.

There was the sound of retreating footsteps – a heavier step than James’ – Gregory’s, then. Sphinx waited until the sound died away before he finally rounded the corner.

James was standing in the middle of the hallway, and he glanced around quickly as Sphinx came into sight, his eyebrows flying upwards.

“How much of that did you hear?” James asked a moment later, looking amused and rueful.

“Most of it,” said Sphinx. “Thank you for being so patient with him. He had no right to throw the fact that you were orphaned in your face.”

“No, but he was only trying to look out for your interests,” said James. “I can understand that. It’s what I would do.”

Sphinx eyed him.

“Is it?”

“Well, I’d tell you I was going to do it beforehand, instead of going behind your back,” James amended, “but basically, yes – if I didn’t trust someone’s motives towards you, I’d definitely do something about it.”

“Hmm,” said Sphinx. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that; on the one hand, James’ protective instinct was endearing; on the other, Sphinx was, as James had pointed out, capable of making his own decisions.

“Are you on your way to lunch?” James asked. “I’d just sent the children off with Michael to the mess hall, and was going to come and ask you if you were joining us all for lunch when Gregory waylaid me.”

“I did think about having lunch in my office,” Sphinx admitted, “but it does morale good to see me out and about.”

“We should dance while we’re there,” James suggested, eyes twinkling. “It’s been a while since you performed one of your dance numbers, and you know your henchmen get into the spirit of things.”

Sphinx frowned at him.

“You know very well that those are _spontaneous_ dance numbers,” he said, and James laughed, and slipped an arm around him. Together, they walked towards the mess hall, leaning into each other.

Sphinx couldn’t help smiling.

 

  

 

 


End file.
